Guys when I see someone who joined ten days ago get about 60 thanks for one General Nonsense Thread that tells me the Thanks and their associated Stars are no longer a valid way of judging how a member is valued here.

New members that look to the "Stars" to gauge someone's reputation here would be misled.

Just a suggestion: Eliminate the ability to give or receive thanks for General Nonsense.

I feel this would be a good move for the whole forum.

And I think it should be retroactive. Sorry but I don't think we should pin medals on the Class Clowns.

I was told point blank by a Senior Moderator here that this is first and foremost a Tech Forum. That's why stuff that's annoying and difficult to moderate should take a back seat to technical issue threads. Does anyone remember any difficult to moderate threads that were eliminated on this logic?

However what I am seeing instead is a totally rabid General Nonsense Thread that no other Tech Forum would even have kept alive over-running TPU. I guess the other option is to just not moderate such a thread at all. Which is what I see going on right now. Exchanges and language that would have gotten many of us infractions or a little vacation are being ignored completely by staff.

There are probably more hits/views to TPU for the "Who Will Make a Better President" thread than any other right now. If that's what the Big Wiz wants that's his deal...it's his Forum. But the fallout from this is going to be a bunch of Loud Mouthed Opinionated n00bs with a Zillion Thanks from all the other Loud Mouthed Opinionated n00bs that agreed with their POV. And they will have been trained by this shower of thanks to believe the way to act is by being rude and opinionated.

Consider this to be like "inflation" except instead of the dollar it's about self-worth. Some n00b with a hundred Thanks that has not solved a single tech problem or posted a single worthwhile tech thread or done anything tech related of merit will have the same "star" status as members that have spent months even years adding to the Fourm.

The Political thread in particular is not a value add for TPU in my opinion. It doesn't make me lol...it doesn't make me feel closer to the community...it doesn't bring anything new to the table. It's about people cursing at each other and denigrating each other and regurgitating what they have been fed by the Left and the Right and it's really pretty sad to see it run on and on and on.

I am hoping that the Big Wiz will step forward and end this social experiment before the lab rats all start to eat each other alive.

Thanks for reading. I hope that we can restore some camaradery and pleasant exchanges to the Forum after this election hoopla is over.

I also suggest that Post Count (which is linked to Stars BTW) be eliminated from the General Nonsense SubForum. Why should these posts count? Many other High Profile Tech forums have eliminated Post Count for their Off Topic areas specifically because of this over-inflation. I love General Nonsense as much as anyone here but I don't need it to count toward reputation on the Forum. Again this will create a false image for members that spend an excessive amount of time arguing and posting in argumentative and otherwise Technically Useless threads here.

I wouldnt mind it not being there either. Im a frequent reader of that thread and I value all their opinions there, even if I do not agree with them. If some useful new information is brought to my attention in that thread or someone contradicts a point I made and I learn something new, they will receive my thanks.

The 'stars' indicate post count, not thanks count. Up to 5000 posts, the stars go up, after which, you can choose a [decent] custom title for yourself.

I was told point blank by a Senior Moderator here that this is first and foremost a Tech Forum. That's why stuff that's annoying and difficult to moderate should take a back seat to technical issue threads. Does anyone remember any difficult to moderate threads that were eliminated on this logic?

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Unfortunately, GN threads draw most of the moderators' time. GN threads is where people are most likely to cross the line. We always try to be more flexible to GN threads, but end up being taken advantage of, most of the time. When we try to be a little more assertive than what we are with our thresholds already far-stretched, we get rants from naive, immature and ignorant members who "question our credibility, call us names", for what? for being a little stiff with GN. Such people tend to forget, GN is a privilege, it's miscellaneous and not a priority for a tech-forum.

Yes, I also do agree. Normally, people thank people for helping them with some problems on their computer or something like that, but in GN we don't help anyone to fix their computer (only other stuff).

There are probably more hits/views to TPU for the "Who Will Make a Better President" thread than any other right now. If that's what the Big Wiz wants that's his deal...it's his Forum. But the fallout from this is going to be a bunch of Loud Mouthed Opinionated n00bs with a Zillion Thanks from all the other Loud Mouthed Opinionated n00bs that agreed with their POV. And they will have been trained by this shower of thanks to believe the way to act is by being rude and opinionated.

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That was our first poll thread. Polls are meant to be very out-of-the-bleu, while being tech-connected. The "president" poll wasn't, but it was meant to be more of a catalyst, to kick-off the sub-forum. Eventually, these polls will get increasingly tech-related, while also inviting responses and views the way the other polls did, while not giving too much room for "Loud Mouthed Opinionated n00bs" to even make a credible (thanks-worthy) argument, the questions will themselves make sure that doesn't happen. We're just working on striking the right balance between an interesting question, and a tech related question. Your ideas here would be appreciated.

G/N Posts currently do not count. The thanks button either way doesnt matter to me, and the better pres thread. I didnt even bother to look at/read it.

But you do know this. I am all about improvement and change, feel the same way you do CD!

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ditto..

a few times though, posts that are thanked in G/N actually have merit. for example, i think the thanks that artists recieve in the Graphic Artists United thread completely have merit. It shows that the artists are active contributors in the thread and deserve the thanks. just a good example of how some general nonsense posts actually have merit in the thanks. and what about random posts in the main area of the fourms that are thanked? in some threads, the op decides to thank every post, how is that an accurate representation of how helpful the person is?

while your thoughts have some merit, i don't think that all g/n thanks should be voided.

That was our first poll thread. Polls are meant to be very out-of-the-bleu, while being tech-connected. The "president" poll wasn't, but it was meant to be more of a catalyst, to kick-off the sub-forum. Eventually, these polls will get increasingly tech-related, while also inviting responses and views the way the other polls did, while not giving too much room for "Loud Mouthed Opinionated n00bs" to even make a credible (thanks-worthy) argument, the questions will themselves make sure that doesn't happen. We're just working on striking the right balance between an interesting question, and a tech related question. Your ideas here would be appreciated.

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It's cool BT, no need to fluff Wiz up, he can do what he likes, for better or worse.

I also /sign this; and I wouldn't mind seeing the General Nonsense sub-forum removed entirely...but you know, what would all our 'loyal' members do if they couldn't babble about non-tech related content? Oh dear...

I agree w/ you CD, but by the same token I think the thanks is really a gimmick anyway, and not really relevant to useful a user is sometimes. Also, it's not like I'm just going to ignore those w/ low thanks counts and pay extra attention to those that have high ones, if I have a problem I'm generally thankful of everyone who responds, and could thank them in kind, but it kind of loses it's luster given I could be thanked for simply sharing the same opinion as somebody, or b/c I respond even if I wasn't helpful. Or even if I was helpful, that really doesn't have much bearing on my future helpfulness or not. And some users find me more or less favorable than others (and thus more likely to thank), ect, ect.

At any rate, my point is I don't really think the thanks count should be taken seriously, and as such it almost seems fitting to be counted in GN. But hey, what works for everyone works for me.

For some one to think that one is a good at the sort of "tech" Stuff they look at thanks and posts... But, if you get them ALL from GN then it's just useless.. You should be thanked on the parts that count. You help someone and that's it. Now, I have thanked people for saying "Happy Birthday" or "that looks cool" but GN is just a "fart around" area that we can unwind in and talk Non tech stuff. So, with that. I think we shouldn't have it ether. This place isn't about "who has the bigger post count" or "Wow, you can help me out because your Thank ratio is the same as your posts".. Please..
I'm with you CD, and all ways am.